About Us
Hi, we’re Steve and Rachel.
We live in Petworth, a fantastic, tree-covered, historic neighborhood in our nation’s capital city. In October 2010, we bought this 1921 rowhouse — fairly unadorned and essentially the tract/production home of its era in the city. We had scant idea of the amount of work that lay ahead of us in the coming years. “Oh, we’ll probably need to make some updates, and we’ll re-do the kitchen, but it’s TOTALLY livable now!”
This blog chronicles our on-again, off-again process of remodeling and repairs since we began in November 2010. After those first two years of nearly nonstop work, things slowed down as our three kids were born between 2012 and 2018. (It’s wild to read our reflections at the one-year mark in 2011!)
Now, our work (and the blogging) goes in fits and starts whenever we can find the inspiration and the time, though our aim here has largely been keeping our own journal of our life in this house.
Pros have handled some major projects for us, but otherwise, we’ve been on our own to make this house what we want it to be. I (Steve) was decently handy when we bought this place — I always tooled around in my Dad’s workshop and worked for a few contractors in high school and college — but I’d never attempted anything on this scale before. Come along for the ride!
Start with some popular posts and projects
Click through for all the photos from our first tour, inspection, and before we started work in Nov. 2010. You’ve come a long way, baby!
Phase 1: No kids in sight!
- 2012: At long last, insulating the porch ceiling
- 2012: Removing paint from brass and metal hardware
- 2012: Adding new attic access and storage
The biggest thing we did in 2010 (and one of the few things we had to hire out) was to gut the kitchen, take out the wall separating the dining room and kitchen, and rebuild a new kitchen before we moved in See the plans below:
Let’s get outdoors
- 2011-2013: A total backyard transformation
- 2016: Expanding the back deck
- 2011-2016: Six years of work on the front porch
Basement goes boomba
- 2013: A huge decision on the basement: to dig or not to dig
- 2013: Planning the basement: solving the mechanical closet riddle
- 2013: Creating a new workshop (and beer cellar!) in the unlikeliest place
Going room by room
- 2011: Remodeling the second bedroom down to the studs
- 2015: Gutting and renovating the bathroom in nine days
Creating a nursery with a baby on the way:
Finally, we get to make stuff